When Obvious Meets Oblivious
by fleurdelisee
Summary: The one where Blaine flirts with songs, Kurt is thick and Finn is scarred for life.


_The canon of this was smashed to smithereens after Furt aired. To my defense, it was written between Furt and Special Education, way, way back before Blaine even had a last name. I edited to give him the right one, but yeah, there's one thing in there that won't make sense anymore. So take this as an AU._

Kurt couldn't recall exactly what happened and why it happened. He was sitting next to Sam in the nurse's office while the other glee guys were standing or sitting around the room. They all looked terrible.

"Thanks," Kurt whispered, saying it again for the hundredth time in half an hour.

"Don't mention it. Fucking bastards," Finn muttered.

"It's okay, he's an idiot."

"I don't mean Karofsky. I mean the rest of the school who stood there without a word. What would have happened if we hadn't walked you to your class? Just because you're gay doesn't mean you're a punching bag." Sam looked seriously pissed off, the eye he was not covering with ice dark and menacing. "I fucking hate them all."

"Sam, drop it. It's not a big deal," Kurt said dully.

"It _is_a big deal, Kurt! It's such a big deal that you don't even realise how unfairly you are being treated because it's all you know! Back in my old school, it wouldn't have—not everyone is a raging homophobe, Kurt."

Kurt could feel his eyes burning with held back tears but he couldn't tell if they were because of what Sam was saying or because of the way all of the guys he thought were all a bit homophobic had defended him.

"What happened to my bag? I think I left it in the hallway," Kurt asked, desperate to change the subject.

"Tina picked it up. She said she'd leave it in the choir room."

Kurt nodded, thanking them again. They stayed in silence for a long time. The nurse was gone and the pack of ice Kurt was holding to his head was melting, causing cold water to run down the side of his head and down his shirt. He still had a metallic taste in his mouth from his split lip.

"Kurt? Your father is here," Ms. Pillsbury softly said, walking in the room. An infinite sadness was filling her wide brown eyes. She reminded Kurt of his mother and it was definitely not the right time to think of her, not when he had to deal with the aftermath of being beat up by a football player.

He slipped off the bed, helped by Sam, and followed her to the principal's office. He was not looking forward to the confrontation at all. He had a feeling he would end up the accused one. He almost wished the guys could come so they could testify that Karofsky was the ones who launched himself at Kurt without a motive.

Kurt left the office completely drained. He felt five hundred years old. No matter how satisfying it was to know that Karofsky had been expelled and that Ms. Sylvester was on his side, he couldn't help but sense the things no one dared say out loud; that it was Kurt's fault if he was gay and that he had brought it to himself. He was also completely terrified of what would happen to him when the football team learned they had lost a player. Finn, Puck, Mike and Sam would not be enough to stop the rest of the team.

"Let's go get your bag, okay?" his father said with a protective hand on his shoulder. "I'll get you home. You need to rest."

Kurt nodded, dragging his feet down the hallway towards the choir room. He felt absolutely terrible to put such strain on his father's fragile heart. It was a stress he did not need, to know that his son was being bullied to the point it got him a concussion and purple bruises.

He pushed open the door and everyone became quiet. The guys were back from the nurse's office and their girlfriends were looking over them. Mercedes made a move to get up to hug him but Kurt shook his head, knowing she would understand his need to be left alone. Finn still looked absolutely enraged and so did Puck, to Kurt's surprise. His best guess was that he might tease him relentlessly but he still had morals higher than the Neanderthal that jumped him. Kurt noticed how everyone was pale and looked at him like they cared. It made him feel a bit better to know that what happened to him mattered for at least a few people.

Kurt finally located his bag at the other end of the room, near someone's feet. His eyes travelled up the grey dress pants to know whether or not it would be impolite to ignore the person keeping his bag. Grey pants led to navy blue blazer with a horrendous red border and Kurt's breath caught in his throat when the overly big crest came into view.

"Blaine," he choked out, crashing into the boy's arms as soon as Blaine was up on his feet.

"Mercedes called me and I came as soon as I could." Blaine was hugging him like he could break at any moment. He moved one hand to the back of Kurt's neck to hold him closer when he started shaking.

Kurt didn't care that the entire glee club was watching them; the tears he had been holding back for two hours finally got out and he buried his head in the crook of Blaine's neck to muffle his sobs. He moved in even closer when Blaine kissed his cheek and whispered 'oh, Kurt,' in his ear.

"Let's get you home," Blaine said after a while, slowly untangling himself from Kurt's tight embrace. He leaned down to grab Kurt's bag and put it over his shoulder.

As Kurt was walking back to his father, who was still waiting in the doorway – he was too drained to feel even remotely embarrassed that his father saw him clinging to another boy – Blaine made a bee-line to shake all the guys' hands to thank them.

"Thanks, man," he said as he extended his hand to shake Sam's. "Do I know you from somewhere? You look familiar."

"Yeah. I was at Dalton before coming here. I'm Sam."

"Thank you, Sam."

Sam shrugged and smiled, giving Kurt the thumbs up before he left the room, his father's arm wrapped around his shoulder and Blaine's hand in his.

A week later, Kurt was driving with his father all the way to Westerville to sign the transfer papers. Sam might have had a thing or two to do with it, with the way he showered Kurt in pamphlets and flyers from Dalton Academy behind Rachel's back. It was the readmission of Karofsky into the school by the school board that did it. Faced with this fact, Burt had agreed that it was their last option. Kurt's panic attacks every morning before leaving for McKinley High were driving the both of them to the edge.

Kurt couldn't decide whether he was happy or not that his nickname as soon as he started at Dalton was 'Spy Kid'. It was also quite unexpected to realise everyone knew who he was the second he stepped in through the front doors of the academy on his first morning there. He would need to have a good talk with Blaine as soon as he located the boy among the hundreds of similarly dressed ones.

He saw a few familiar faces in the crowd and as many warm smiles and taps on his back with good luck wishes. Old habits die hard, though, and he always tensed whenever one of them came near him. He still had painful bruises reminding him – as if he needed a reminder – that the world was not full of open-minded, friendly people, however hard Dalton Academy tried to convince him of the opposite.

"Hey, good morning Spy Kid," a voice said to his right as he was trying to find his locker.

"Okay, seriously, who the hell are you? You're the seventh person to greet me this morning. Who told you about me?" He realised too late that he snapped at a complete stranger who was only trying to be nice.

"Bad night, huh? Dorm beds are brutal at first. You'll get used to it. Hi, I'm Jake. I'm in the Warblers. Blaine told us to be nice with you and to make you feel welcome. Looks like were lockers neighbours!" The tall guy clapped his shoulder and Kurt winced, the shock reverberating in his head. "Oh, shit, sorry. Did I do something wrong?"

Kurt was about to tell him to get lost, that it was none of his business, but the look of concern on Jake's face was a genuine one. He truly cared whether he had hurt Kurt or not.

"It's just—Concussion. It still hurts when I'm not careful."

A shadow passed on Jake's face and his fists clenched at his sides. Kurt was pretty sure he heard him mutter 'fucking bigots' under his breath.

"I'm fine. Don't—Seriously. It's okay."

"You'll have to get used to people overprotecting you, Kurt."

Kurt couldn't help the grin that broke out on his face at the sound of Blaine's voice. It was the first time he was seeing him since The Incident That Shall Not Be Named (as declared by Blaine over the phone four nights ago) and the sight of him made Kurt feel like a small flame had been lit in his heart.

Blaine wrapped him in a tight embrace for a brief moment, so brief that Kurt didn't have the time to reciprocate before Blaine was at a safe distance from him again.

"Do you need help to find your classes? This place is a real labyrinth when you're not used to it. Come on."

Blaine put his arm around Kurt's shoulder and steered him through the crowd. It took Kurt approximately two minutes to realise Blaine might well be the most popular kid in the school. Everyone seemed to know who he was. When questioned, Blaine brushed it off saying that it was what you got for being the star of the glee club. Kurt still had a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that the Warblers were like rock stars at Dalton. It was a drastic contrast to see how being captain of the Warblers got you everyone's friendship while being captain of New Directions got you slushied.

The week went by fast and Kurt talked to more people in five days than in his two years at McKinley. Blaine really had told every single one of the Warblers to befriend Kurt. He guessed it was part of his plan to give no choice to Kurt but to join the club. He exposed his theory to Mercedes over the phone and all she did was make fun of Kurt for complaining about having tens of cute boys greeting him wherever he went.

He had to hang up when someone knocked on his door. Kurt opened and found Blaine standing in the hallway, an unreadable smile on his face.

"Are you busy?"

"No, not really. I was trying to make this place look less like a white cube and more like—"

"Good! Come with me."

Blaine took a grip of his hand and pulled him out of his room. Kurt ran behind him, trying to keep up with Blaine's rhythm.

"Stay there," Blaine ordered him once they were in what Kurt remembered to be the senior's common room.

"Oh, please, not Teenage Dream again," Kurt sighed, nonetheless curious to know what Blaine wanted him to see.

That is, until they started singing and Kurt recognised it as a mash-up of Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want by The Smiths and I Want You to Want Me by Cheap Tricks. Kurt thought he would die of embarrassment right here and there because it was obvious that they were singing it to him, and everyone in the crowd knew it, too. He hadn't predicted, though, that when they stopped, they would all fall on their knees in front of him and start begging him to join the club.

"Oh come on, I haven't even been here a week!"

"Sectionals are in a month. We have no time to lose. Blaine told us you were reluctant about it and you've turned down every single one of us when we asked you to join. You gave us no choice but to put you in a situation that would make it impossible for you to refuse."

"You guys are absolutely insane. You don't even know if I'm good enough for you."

If eyes rolling made a sound, Kurt would have been deafened in a second.

"My friend Sam sent me a video," a guy Kurt was almost certain was named Andrew said.

"Sam Evans? What video?" Kurt was getting worried. He hadn't performed a lot of songs since Sam had joined the club.

"Le Jazz Hot?"

Kurt stared at him, wanting nothing but to hide under the floorboards and die there because if there was one thing in his life he didn't want a bunch of strangers to see, it was that. It would have been better if they had found a video of him as a Cheerio.

"So you have two options," Blaine began, standing right in front of Kurt. "You join us, or this video goes viral."

"Are you blackmailing me?"

"If we have to, yes." Blaine took a step forward to say the rest in Kurt' ear. "I know why you're reluctant and I understand it, but you know you'll have fun with us."

"Can I have a few days to think about it? Please?"

"You have two days," David said sternly. "On Monday, the video goes viral."

"I basically have no choice."

"Not really, no. We checked in the school's rules. We're allowed to blackmail you as long as we don't use physical coercion," Jake said happily.

"Alright, alright! But _you_deal with Rachel Berry once she sees me with you guys at Sectionals."

"Deal," Blaine said, extending his hand to shake Kurt's.

Kurt should have seen it coming. As soon as Blaine had a hold of his hand, he pulled him forward and Kurt found himself in the middle of a particularly violent group hug. In any other situation, Kurt would have been way happier to be hugged by twelve teenage boys. At that moment, though, he was still feeling like he had been forced into something that could possibly end up a catastrophe.

The feeling died down a little when they decided to go to BreadstiX (Kurt was a fool to think he would get away from that restaurant by living in another town) to celebrate their new member. He was a little bit suspicious when Wes told the waitress they had a reservation for thirteen people but decided to brush it off and play along.

Somehow, the conversation derived to what had happened to Kurt at some point around when they received their desserts. Kurt found out he was not the first one to transfer after a similar event, even if he was possibly the first student granted the authorisation to transfer in the middle of a term. There were five other guys in the club who had stories resembling Kurt's. One of them was Blaine, as Kurt had suspected since the first day they met, but it was still painful to hear him tell what had happened.

"Listen," Blaine said to Kurt before putting his left wrist close to his ear. He turned it a few times, which caused it to make a weird noise. "They broke it."

Kurt pouted empathically and his eyes met Blaine's. He found himself staring into them for a long time and he would have continued forever if Fred had not started to throw everything he could find at them, while many other guys made retching noises.

"You guys are a disgustingly cute couple," Wes said, a smirk on his face.

"We're not a couple!" they exclaimed at the same time.

The table erupted in snickers and sarcastic 'yeah, right's.

They stayed out late that night, hanging in the streets of downtown Westerville and teasing Blaine and Kurt about their non-existent relationship in between one of them bursting out into a song, soon to be joined by the rest of the club. Kurt couldn't hide his smirk every time he compared this gang of high schoolers to the ones found in Lima. There's was a definite lack of vandalising and too many show tunes to even compare.

They had to sneak back in way past curfew and almost all got caught – because seriously, whoever (Hugo) said they were fine with breaking the curfew was wrong. Thirteen guys trying to enter the same building at the same time could not finish well. Kurt got lucky, and so did Blaine, Wes, Jake and Alex, but the rest of the club was caught as they were about to enter their rooms. Kurt could thank Coach Sylvester for his ability to run up four stories without dying.

Kurt felt bad for the guys who got caught, since it meant detention for them on Monday, but at the same time he was too happy to let it bring him down. For the first time in his life he felt like he belonged in a group and there were no better feelings in the world.

Okay, there was one: receiving a _'goodnight xxxx'_text from Blaine right as he was about to fall asleep.

Kurt was homesick. He was homesick, and grumpy, and in a bad mood and he wanted nothing more but to stay locked in his room until he died. The ecstatic feeling he had felt on Friday night had dissipated by Sunday morning and now he felt miserable. He had to catch up in every single one of his classes – because hey, when teachers were not busy trying to get the students to listen, they could actually get forward with teaching – and his dorm room depressed him and he missed his home.

At one, he sighed and pulled his laptop towards where he was lying on his bed to log on to Skype. Mercedes called him as soon as he appeared online.

"White boy, you better have a good excuse to explain why you didn't call me like you said you would yesterday." When he did not answered, did not even raise his head from how he was lying face down against his pillow, Mercedes' voice softened. "Hey, Kurt, what's wrong?"

"M'miserable," he mumbled, lifting his head just enough so she would hear him. He sighed and pulled himself up on his elbows. "I'm homesick and I have so much studying to catch up on and this bed," he stumped his fist against the mattress to emphasise his point, "sucks so my back hurts."

"Come again? You've been accepted in possibly the greatest high school of the state where you're surrounded by cute boys who are friendly to you, you haven't been bullied once since you transferred, you see the boy of your dreams every day of the week and you have the nerve to complain?"

Kurt opened his mouth to reply but realised he had nothing to say so he shut it.

"Yeah, that's better. Have you been on Facebook lately? There are like, thousands of things in which you've been tagged. Looks like you had a nice Friday night."

"Hold on, I'll check."

Kurt logged in and saw that he had ten friend requests – apparently, The Warblers had a Facebook account – and had been tagged in pictures he didn't even know David had taken. There were also two videos of them belting out Love Game and I Kissed a Girl – the first chapter of the war between Kurt and Blaine over who was better – and he felt a blush creep on his cheeks when Blaine wrapped his arm around Kurt's shoulder at the _'I hope my boyfriend don't mind it'_part of the song.

"Nice shade of red," Mercedes commented and he dived head first in his pillow when he remembered his webcam was still on. "See? They all love you. I don't see what you could possibly miss in Lima. Except me, of course."

Kurt forced a tiny smile on his face but he didn't even convince himself.

"Aw, Kurt. Don't look like this. Hold on."

She disappeared and came back a few seconds later, her phone in hands.

"What are you doing?"

"Texting Blaine so he comes to cheer you up. Or kick your ass. I'll give him the choice. You know what _I_would do if I was there."

"No, don't—"

"And… sent. This moping around doesn't suit you, Kurt. You're being an idiot and you need someone to shake sense into you." Mercedes put her phone to her webcam where Kurt saw '_From Blaine: on my way._'

As if on cue, someone knocked on Kurt's door. Before he could roll off his bed to open, Blaine had burst in and jumped on Kurt's bed. He squirmed around a bit before lying behind Kurt and spooning him.

"Mercedes told me you were being miserable and needed a cuddle. I'm always up for cuddles. You just have to ask."

With that, he nuzzled Kurt's neck and stayed quiet, definitely oblivious to the thumping of Kurt's heart, even though there was no chance he could not feel it, not with the way his hands were splayed over Kurt's chest.

Kurt had hugged people before and he had made out on a couch with Brittany, but he had never _spooned_with someone he was head over heels in love with – even if he would go to his grave denying it. His heart was racing and he felt like every nerve of his body was on fire.

"Good afternoon, Blaine," Mercedes finally said. Kurt felt Blaine jump against him.

"You could have told me you were still on Skype with her," Blaine muttered in his ear.

"You didn't exactly let me talk," he muttered back before turning to face his computer. "Bye Mercedes."

"Yeah, bye. I'll leave you alone to make lots of gay babies with your boyfriend," she said, a smirk on her face.

"We're not dating!" Kurt and Blaine said at the same time before Kurt logged off.

"So, what's up? Why are you feeling so sad?" Blaine asked softly, his breath tickling the back of Kurt's neck.

Kurt shrugged, closing his eyes to better relish the moment.

"I'm homesick, I guess. It's—I don't know. It's not a good day."

"It's okay, we all get those sometimes. But locking yourself up in you room won't help. You'll only feel more miserable. Especially since you have no roommate to keep you entertained."

Kurt had had a roommate for two days; after that, the kid moved to New York and Kurt was left alone. It had led to Ian telling everyone how Kurt's room was cursed and could only be occupied by one person at a time. This then had led to Ben telling everyone how his mom was really into esoteric stuff and that he knew how to purify a room. Kurt's room still smelled of sage almost a week later.

"Do you want to join the guys? We were watching a movie in the commons." Kurt shrugged again and Blaine held him closer. "I have a better idea, then. Come on, get up."

Kurt whined but obliged. He snorted when he took in what Blaine was wearing.

"Thank god for the uniforms, huh," he commented as he fished for a cardigan in his dresser.

"What? It's not that bad," Blaine said, looking down at his tight jeans and horrible brown wool sweater.

"My grandfather wears the same sweaters than you."

"Well, my mom wears the same than you."

Kurt quirked his eyebrow at that. "Fashion has no gender. Now, what is it you want to show me? Hurry up before I become lethargic again and refuse to move."

Blaine smiled and took Kurt's hand – seriously, he was not able to _not_hold his hand even for a second – and dragged him along.

"Don't tell me you guys want to serenade me again, I swear to god I will transfer back to Lima if you do that," Kurt complained as he followed Blaine through the tunnel linking the dorms to the rest of the school and then through the empty hallways of the main building.

"No, don't worry. I want to show you something."

They stopped in front of tall wooden doors. Blaine pushed them open and Kurt followed him into the auditorium. He looked like an old theatre, with high ceilings and chairs that looked too comfortable to be true.

"The acoustics here is unbelievable," Blaine commented as they went up the central aisle.

Kurt looked up at the ceiling and saw it was ornate with wooden mouldings. The modern lights clashed against it. He climbed on the stage after Blaine and took a look at the room, perfectly picturing himself singing up on that stage. Next to him, Blaine was beaming.

"I knew you'd love it. It would have been my last argument to convince you to join the Warblers."

Blaine's voice sounded loudly through the room, confirming what he had said about the good acoustics.

"You're right, the sound is awesome."

"And it's even better when we sing."

"I believe you," Kurt said, looking around himself some more. He missed the look that appeared on Blaine's face.

"I can show you, if you want."

"What?" Kurt asked distractedly.

Before he could register what was happening, Blaine was singing the first line of A Whole New World. Kurt stared at him with intent, trying to decide whether he was dreaming this or not. He decided it was not a dream when Blaine stroked his cheek as he sang '_tell me princess_'.

"Disney? _Really_?" he asked when Blaine continued with the song. He didn't even answer him.

Blaine grabbed his hands and forced him to look at him as he continued with Aladdin's part. Kurt knew that Jasmine's was about to come and he knew Blaine was expecting him to sing it. Part of him wanted to, but he didn't know which one would win; the cheesy one or the pragmatic one.

He could not resist. As soon as he joined in, Blaine let go of one of his hands and started moving them both around the stage as though they were travelling on a magic carpet. He was putting so much energy into it that Kurt suspected he had it planned out when he first showed up in Kurt's room.

On the last verse, Blaine pulled Kurt close and wrapped his arms around his waist, putting them at a very close distance. They stayed that way, their foreheads pressed together, long after their harmony on the last line was over.

Blaine was the first one to move away, quickly and awkwardly.

"So, yeah. That's it. Sounds good, huh?"

Kurt stood on the spot, still star-struck and unsure of what had happened. He was convinced they were about to kiss. They were so close; it had seemed like the next logical step.

"Y-yeah, it sounds good. Awesome."

The rest of the day went better than the beginning. Blaine made sure Kurt was not left alone any second to avoid seeing him go back into his 'emo mood', as he nicknamed it. Blaine brought his guitar to Kurt's room and strummed it for hours, singing songs like Fix You by Coldplay, Asleep by The Smiths and Something There from Beauty and the Beast.

When he was done writing his History paper, Kurt joined him and sang along and when Blaine began going through The Beatles' catalogue, he ended up singing I Want To Hold Your Hand alone, Blaine looking at him with those eyes he had sometimes when he was looking at Kurt. They always made Kurt feel like he could read inside of him. It left Kurt with a strange feeling in his stomach, like something was off and that maybe he should be doing something, but what, he didn't know. All he knew is that he would have been happy to spend the rest of his life watching Blaine play his guitar.

Kurt's first rehearsal with The Warblers went down in History as one of those moments he would rather forget forever. They had prepared, behind his back, a medley of Lady Gaga songs to welcome him. It was going relatively well until Hugo tripped over his feet and sent the entire back row collapsing to the ground. The front one could have kept on singing to keep good figure but they were too busy laughing. This saved everyone the awkward moment when the twelve guys would have had to sing '_I want to take a ride on your disco stick_' to Kurt. The rehearsal had to be called off when the teacher in charge, Mr. Wood, got tired of hearing them whimper about their bruises.

The second rehearsal went better. Jake and Alex had spent the past days teaching Kurt the choreography they were working on every time they could so he would not be too lost. He found out it was all for nothing, though, because Mr. Wood announced they were done with that song and would start moving on to their Sectionals and Christmas recital setlists. The Christmas part caught everyone's attention more than Sectionals, to their teacher's dismay.

"Come on, guys, we need to decide what to sing."

"I thought we had agreed on Hey, Soul Sister?"

"Yes, Wes, but we still need a duet. Or a solo."

"And I thought we had voted for Blaine to do it?"

"Yes," Mr. Wood was getting impatient, "but he still hasn't picked a song."

"I have," Blaine said. Mr. Wood looked at him with emphasis to get Blaine to say more.

"You sure you want to do this one, man?" David asked him.

"Yeah. I am."

"Can I know what song it is?" Kurt questioned when it was obvious no one was going to name it.

"No, it's a surprise," Blaine said with a wink.

"You're kidding, right?"

"I—"

"He's doing Thinking Of You. By Katy Perry," Hugo called from the back of the choir room.

"You're kidding." Kurt was convinced, now.

"He's not." Blaine said after a moment in silent. "That's the song I'm doing."

Kurt rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"If it was possible to come out of the closet a second time, I'd say you're more than ready for it."

Blaine threw him the stress ball Mr. Wood used to shut them up.

Studying was very hard when Alex insisted to play music on his laptop. Kurt could have moved to the library but he was too comfortable in his armchair to move from the junior common room. It had started with soft classical music but quickly turned into anything Alex had in his music library. For a teenager, this boy listened to way too much adult rock for it to be normal. Kurt could live with Journey – hell, he could also sing along and dance with elaborate choreographies – and endure REO Speedwagon without protesting too much.

He lost it when a Michael Bublé song came on.

"Oh for heaven's sake, skip this song. I can't stand him," he called from behind his French textbook.

"There it goes," Wes said tiredly at the same time than Blaine loudly put down his Chemistry textbook.

"You don't like Michael Bublé? How are we friends?"

"You do?"

"Of course I do! He's awesome! He's wonderful! He's my future husband! We're going to get married in Canada and it's going to be awesome." Kurt stared at him, trying to see whether Blaine was joking or not. "You don't believe me? Let me prove to you how amazing he is. Alex, Save the Last Dance For Me."

The opening notes of the song Kurt hated so much filled the room as Blaine got up and walked towards Kurt. He extended his arm and wiggled his eyebrows until Kurt, sighing, put down his textbook and put his hand in Blaine's.

Immediately, Blaine pulled him to his feet and put Kurt's hand on his shoulder. He grabbed his other one and put his own hand on Kurt's waist. Before he knew it, Kurt was dancing around the room, led by Blaine who was way too good at it for a normal teenage boy. He was also singing the song along, loudly, his voice dropping to say certain part to Kurt only.

"Baby don't you know I love you so, can't you feel it when we touch? I will never, never let you go, I love you oh so much," Blaine crooned in his ear and Kurt giggled.

Kurt had to agree, though, that he was going weak from the way Blaine spun them around or swayed their hips in time. On the last note, Blaine dipped him backwards, his face inches from Kurt's. Kurt took in a sharp breath and his nose bumped against Blaine's. It seemed to bring them back to reality because Blaine pulled him upwards and let go of him.

"See? This is why I love Michael Bublé."

With that, he went back to studying Chemistry. Kurt stood on the spot, his eyes still on Blaine, his breath short.

It took David an hour to upload the video to Facebook. It was a record, even for him, considering that he spent said hour in a room with no computer sitting right next to Kurt. The comments ranged from 'they're like our gay mascots, only gayer and we're not allowed to kick them' from David to 'white boys, get your shit together' from Mercedes. Even Rachel had commented, something about her fathers and how Kurt could call them if he had questions. Wes said 'that's all they do all day. Please save us.' When he saw that Brittany had commented with 'more boy-kissing plz', he logged off, not wanting to read anything more.

"We need to choose the Christmas songs and start working on them," Mr. Wood announced in the middle of the glee club rehearsal.

He couldn't have chosen a worse timing. They were all exhausted from practicing Hey, Soul Sister six times in a row. Kurt was convinced he would be able to do the choreography in his sleep. He was lying on the floor where he had collapsed after their sixth round and he did not intend to move unless the school was on fire.

Hugo mumbled something with his face against the floor, where he too had collapsed.

"Come again?"

Sighing, he turned his head to the side to speak more audibly. "Can't we just do Jingle Bells Rock and O Christmas Tree and be done with it?"

"Well yes, we'll do the same ones than every year, that's a given, but I kind of want a duet," Mr. Wood announced.

Kurt opened his eyes because something told him he was going to be forced into this duet.

"Why do I have a feeling you'll ask Kurt and I?" Blaine said.

"Because you are right? There's this one song, let me find it, hold on," he continued, digging in his bag and retrieving a cd.

He put it on and a mellow song started. Kurt burst out laughing when he recognised it.

"Baby It's Cold Outside? _Really_?"

"It's a lovely song! What's wrong with it?"

"It's a duet between a man and a woman," Kurt pointed out, knowing it was a lost cause but fighting anyway. There was something about singing a romantic duet with Blaine that made him feel awkward.

"This is in your range, Kurt. Blaine, you didn't say anything. What do you think?"

Blaine shrugged and said, "yeah, cool." It closed the argument, to Kurt's dismay.

"Last thing I need to tell you and then you can go. New Directions invited us. Basically, they'd do one song, we'd do one song, and then we'd 'socialise'." He did the quotation marks in the air.

Kurt rolled his eyes and grunted.

"Do I have to go?" he asked before he could stop himself.

Completely ignoring him, Mr. Wood started listing all the songs they could possibly sing to 'totally kick New Directions' ass into oblivion'. Always the helpful one, Blaine would say 'Teenage Dream!' every time their teacher stopped talking to breathe.

"Blaine, stop it. We're not doing Teenage Dream," he finally snapped when Blaine started talking over him.

"Why not? Last time I sang it, I got us a new student and he's totally awesome."

Kurt did not see the hug coming. Well, it was not a hug. It was more like Blaine throwing himself across Kurt's chest – because he was still lying on the floor, he was serious about not moving unless there were flames – and smothering him.

He had expected Blaine to move away after the socially acceptable duration of a friendly hug had passed but apparently, Blaine had decided Kurt was now his pillow. Kurt patted his hair and Blaine hummed, nuzzling Kurt's chest.

Kurt must have missed something because next thing he knew, they were doing Teenage Dream to impress New Directions. It was not like he had been paying attention, either. It was kind of hard to stay focused on something when Blaine was tapping his fingers on Kurt's chest to follow the rhythm of whichever song he had in his head. Kurt wasn't sure but he was ready to bet on Bad Romance.

For some reason, Blaine followed Kurt around for the rest of the day. He sat next to him during dinner and tagged along until Kurt was standing in the doorway of his room.

"Hum, do you want to come in?" Kurt asked when it was obvious Blaine wanted nothing more than that.

"Okay!" he said cheerfully and pushed past Kurt, sitting on his bed and getting comfortable among his cushions. "Do you want to watch a movie? I know it's Friday night and the guys are doing something but I'd prefer a quiet night in, no?"

Something was off but Kurt could not put his finger on it. That kept him busy throughout the movie, though. He was trying to figure out what could possibly cause Blaine to hold him closely as they watched Singing In The Rain on Kurt's laptop.

When Blaine fell asleep against him, he felt his heart swell a little. He knew Blaine was exhausted with all the revision for midterms, the stress of being the main soloist of The Warblers and taking part in just about every club the school had to offer, but he never figured it was that bad. He turned off the movie and slumped a bit more against his cushions to be more comfortable under Blaine's weight. At the same time, Blaine's phone beeped and flashed on Kurt's nightstand. Carefully, he reached for it to turn it off in case it would wake him up. His eyes caught on the text that had caused it to ring.

_So, how's the plan going? From: Wes._

Kurt stared at it for a long time. His fingers itched with repressed curiosity. He was a sucker for reading people's text messages, especially when they obviously could explain what was off with his friend.

He unlocked the phone and immediately was in the conversation Blaine was having with Wes.

_This is getting ridiculous. You two are the only ones not able to see it._

What are you talking about?

You know. I think they can see it on Mars.

What do you expect me to do?

Be bolder, man. He's obviously oblivious to the entire planet.

Yeah, well, the clinging phase is on. Next, maybe a movie in his room? I don't know, we'll see how it . I'm a teenage girl.

Kurt put the phone down, even more confused. Of course, he had a theory, but he was not sure if he wanted to hold onto it, in case he was wrong. He would obviously love it if Blaine was—if Blaine wanted—but he'd rather not hope for it and then be deceived.

Next to him, Blaine snored softly and held onto Kurt tighter.

To say that Kurt was nervous was an understatement. He could feel his insides trying to crawl out of his body. His nervousness was only growing as they neared Lima. He was also slightly impressed at how easily The Warblers had booked a bus. He remembered the bake sale New Directions had had to do to afford going to Sectionals. Then again, The Warblers were rock stars. The school granted them whatever they wanted.

"There we are. William McKinley High School," Mr. Wood announced. "You're okay, Kurt?"

Kurt nodded stiffly, gripping Blaine's hand. He knew it was stupid to be so nervous; Karofsky had been expelled and he had twelve guys willing to defend him if anyone decided to do anything but raise their pinkie to harm Kurt.

Walking through the doors in a Dalton uniform felt weird; that and not being a student there anymore. He glanced at his locker as they passed it, noticing how it was still vacant. He also saw the effect they had, the thirteen of them, walking down the crowded hallway in their uniform. The stares they got from the girls were hard to miss. For a moment, he truly felt like a rock star.

The feeling died down when the football team came into sight and among them, Karofsky. Unconsciously, Kurt slowed down his pace and moved closer to Blaine. The boy took a firm hold of Kurt's hand and pulled him forward.

"Don't let them see your fear. They're like tyrannosaurus, they can smell it."

Kurt made a sound halfway between a laugh and a whimper but he kept on walking. The glare Karofsky sent Kurt's way was hard to ignore, but he did. He kept his head high and did not even glance at them.

The glee club was already in the auditorium when they arrived. Mr. Schue came towards them to shake Mr. Wood's hand and greet them. Kurt barely had time to brace himself before Mercedes crushed him into a tight hug.

When she finally let go of him, the second wave of hugs arrived, led by Finn. Ever since he found out about Karofsky threatening his life, he had become some sort of freakishly tall human shield for Kurt. He would not let Kurt walk alone the entire week before he transferred.

Even Coach Sylvester was there, the same look of perpetual annoyance on her face. He thought he saw the hint of a smile, though, when he waved at her.

"Lookin' good, Porcelain," she said. "Nice harem you've got there."

Kurt rolled his eyes and smiled. In his nervousness about going back to McKinley, he had forgotten that there were people he truly liked there.

"Guys, this is all very nice, but we have a show to prepare. We decided that New Directions would perform first, since we're the ones who invited you," Rachel said before quickly walking backstage.

Finn shrugged and followed her, soon imitated by the rest of the club. Kurt and the Warblers sat in the middle of the auditorium, filling a row. Blaine was still holding his hand and did through the entire performance. Kurt had to admit that he missed part of it because at some point, Blaine started rubbing circles with his thumb on the back of Kurt's hand. Kurt gripped his hand tighter to signal that it was completely fine with him and he caught Blaine's smile out of the corner of his eyes.

The Warblers took the stage and that was when Kurt's nerves truly kicked in. He had not noticed when he was sitting down but now that he was up on the stage, he saw that a few students had filled the auditorium as well. He was almost sure he caught a flash of white and red on a large figure, but before he could check again, Blaine sent the silent countdown to the beginning of the song.

The performance was going well and he caught a few impressed looks from his friends, which gave him even more energy to continue. But of course, Blaine had to improvise – he had been warned by Wes and David that it might happen when Blaine got too much into the performance – and grab Kurt by the hand to twirl him in a way that reminded him of his stunt on Save The Last Dance For Me.

The part that made Kurt wish he could disappear under the stage was when Blaine pressed himself against Kurt's back and wrapped his arms across his chest, holding his hands, as he sang the final lines of the song, swaying them sides to sides as he did so.

Kurt felt a wave of anger bubbling inside of him as they left the stage.

"What was that?" he snapped at Blaine as soon as they were out of earshot from the crowd.

"Wha—"

"You _know_Karofsky could be there and you know how they treat gays here and yet you had to—to handle me like we were back at Dalton!"

"Kurt, calm down. I don't even know what you mean by _handling_you. We danced, just like we did back in the commons. There's even a video of it on Facebook. That's worse than what I just did, no? I don't understand why you're getting so worked up."

"Of course you don't. He was there, Blaine. I don't know how come he's back at McKinley or why he bothered to watch us perform, but he was there. The guy who threatened to kill me saw what you did on that stage. We're not at Dalton right now. This school is fucking insane and who knows if he won't be outside to beat us up and—"

"What does it change if we're not at Dalton? You know that if this guy ever even got close to you, you would have something like fifteen guys lining up to defend you. That's not it. You mean it's okay to act all cuddly when you're inside those walls but out in the world, it's not? How am I supposed to feel? Are you ashamed of me, is that it? You're ashamed of whatever it is I'm not even sure we have."

"I—No! I'm not ashamed! I just don't want to get the shit beaten out of me by a closeted homophobe."

"You know, I used to think you were just a bit slow, or oblivious, but you're not. I get it, now. You want nothing to do with me. You never did. I'm a good friend, that's all. You could have told me so I didn't spend the last month flirting with you and making a fool out of myself. Thanks a lot, Hummel."

Tears burned Kurt's eyes as he watched Blaine storming away. He slumped against the nearest wall and slid to the floor, hiding his face in his knees. He wanted nothing more than to go curl up in his room – his real room – and die there.

"Kurt?" he heard but didn't bother look up. It was Finn. Kurt could imagine the way he was awkwardly standing in front of him, not sure of what to do. "Are you alright? We heard you and Blaine yelling and then he stormed off the stage. Mercedes was busy flirting with that guy, Wes, so I figured you were all alone here and were probably upset so I came."

Kurt shrugged, finally looking up. He wiped his eyes and shrugged again, feeling more tears coming down his cheeks when Finn sat next to him and wrapped his arm around his shoulders.

"I screwed up everything," he finally said, leaning into his step-brother. "I—I love Blaine, okay, and I just—I got scared when he grabbed me on stage and I yelled at him for all the wrong reasons and it turned out he likes me but now he doesn't want anything to do with me because I've been an ass to him and he thinks I don't like him," Kurt blurted out in one breath in between sobs.

"You remember that time when Rachel was dating Jesse because I spent too much time getting over Quinn?" Finn asked, squeezing Kurt's shoulder. "And then I would be all awkward and sing songs like Jessie's Girl and Hello, I Love You and she would just continually turn me down? Well I think Blaine's not mad at you. He's mad at himself because he—he was hanging on a false hope and it upsets him to know that he won't get what he wants. That's how I felt. After a while, you get sick of running after someone who turns you down or does not respond to you."

Kurt wiped his eyes and stared at Finn in disbelief. There was no way it was a speech Rachel had written for him yet it was way too insightful for the teenager to have come up with it alone.

"You've changed, Finn. You're kind of awesome, now," Kurt said with a laugh, a quiver in his voice from the crying.

"Well, you know, I'm always awesome. It's just that I show it more when you're not creeping me out by flirting with me."

Kurt grunted and hid his face in his knees.

"Sorry about that. Seriously. Sorry. Gosh."

"It's okay, man. I know I'm irresistible," Fin said through a chuckle. "Come on, now. Everyone wants to talk to you."

"Give me a minute?"

"Take your time."

Finn patted his back and left.

By the time he came back out on the stage, the word had gone through the Warblers that Kurt and Blaine had had a fall out and they all politely said nothing. Kurt was touched, but he was also worried that they would side with Blaine as soon as he talked to them.

It didn't seem like it would be an issue, though, because they were too busy talking with the girls, while Puck, Artie, Mike and Sam looked on with wary eyes. Sam seemed too busy making sure Quinn was not running away with a prep boy to actually acknowledge that at least half of them were friends with him.

Blaine was nowhere to be found, and so was David. Kurt met Wes' eyes and the boy shrugged, giving him a half smile before resuming his conversation with Mercedes.

"Didn't he have a girlfriend?" Alex asked him.

"I thought so, too. He better not break Mercedes' heart."

"Speaking of breaking hearts—"

"No."

Alex put up his hands in surrender and moved on to greet Sam. Kurt stayed behind, watching the scene but not wanting to participate. He was not in the mood to be cheerful and happy to see his friends.

"You were right. He _was_there. Coach Sylvester threw him out of the auditorium halfway through your performance. You were okay, by the way. The competition will be fair, this year." Rachel had snuck out of the crowd to stand next to him.

"I'm going to take this as the highest compliment you will ever give us?"

"It is."

She didn't speak for a moment and Kurt appreciated it. He was not in the mood to deal with her.

"You know, last year, when Finn ignored me because he thought he was—you know. At some point I got mad at him because—"

"It's okay Rachel. Finn gave me this talk already. Thanks, though."

The ride back to Dalton was the longest Kurt ever lived. He was sitting next to Hugo because Blaine had asked to switched seats with him. If some of them did not know what had happened before, now they did. Kurt spent the two hours staring out of his window, listening to the soundtrack of Annie on his iPod to try and numb the pain, as well as drown out Blaine's voice.

Kurt realised really quickly that not talking to Blaine anymore meant being alone all the time. Blaine always hung out with the rest of the Warblers and to avoid him, Kurt had to avoid all of them. Blaine always seemed to appear out of thin air every time Kurt was about to go sit with his friends. After a day, he had taken to eat in his room and revise in his room and pretty much never leave his room unless he had to go to class.

On the third day, a Saturday, he risked sitting in the common room to revise. He was sick of his dorm's four walls and figured the room was large enough that he could sit away from Blaine without a problem. He settled in an armchair next to a window, ignoring the cold breeze it let in. Maybe half an hour after he arrived, Blaine and a few other guys all sat in their usual armchairs. They could not see Kurt as his chair was facing the other way and neither could he, but they were talking loud enough for him to hear their conversation.

As usual, Alex started playing music on his laptop and no one complained until a Michael Bublé came on. Kurt heard someone slamming a heavy textbook on a table before Blaine spoke.

"Cut it out, will you? We're trying to revise here and this is not helping."

"Wow, calm down Blaine. You don't have to ask it that way. Jeez. You're fucking insufferable lately, you know that?"

"Yeah, Alex's right. We know you're mad at Kurt but you don't have to take this out on us. We don't make you endure our mood swings when we break up with our girlfriends," Wes snapped back.

"_We didn't break up_," Blaine hissed. "We never dated."

"Yeah and whose fault is that?"

"Certainly not mine."

"There we go again," David sighed. "We already explained to you what was wrong with your technique. Do we really have to again?"

Kurt could have stayed and listened but he felt like he was intruding on something he was not supposed to hear. He got up and began crossing the room.

At the same time, Blaine was saying "It's not my fault if he's such a fucking stuck up goody-goody bitch."

"Blaine!"

Kurt sped up, aware that the cry of Blaine's name was because he had been noticed. He only stopped when he had reached his room, the tears in his eyes making it hard to unlock the door. It would be a lie to say he didn't spend the entire afternoon alternating between angry and desperate tears.

He hated the mood he was in because it was so ridiculous and he had brought it on himself. He hated to wallow in his misery but he had reached the breaking point and could no longer pretend that everything was fine. He loved Blaine and the boy very obviously hated him now only because it had taken him too much time realising that all the clinging and touching was blatant flirting that he was too thick to notice. He had had the opportunity to get together with the most wonderful person he had ever met and he blew it off because of a stupid fear of being judged and bullied.

He skipped dinner that day, not wanting anyone to see the mess he was. He lied in bed for a long time, exhausted from all the crying but unable to fall asleep. He considered calling Mercedes or Finn or_anyone_but by the time he found his phone, it was three in the morning and he didn't dare wake up anyone.

The next morning, he skipped breakfast and intended on spending the day in his room but a text message from Wes reminded him that they had a glee rehearsal in the afternoon. With Sectionals in less than a week, they spent all of their free time rehearsing.

Kurt tried to hide his red, puffy eyes and the dark circles from his sleepless night with every make up trick he knew but he ended up washing it all way, the result even worse. He did not even feel like wearing decent clothes so he put on a t-shirt and sweatpants. His hair was falling limply in his face. He had to admit that part of him hoped if he looked bad enough, people would pity him and let him crawl back in bed for the rest of the school year.

"Did someone steal all your clothes? I didn't even know you _owned_sweatpants. Are they from a Cheerleading squad? You have 'WMHS CHEERIOS' written on your ass." Hugo said with a chuckle as Kurt entered the choir room. He stopped when Kurt was close enough that he could see his face. "Wow, man. You look terrible. When was the last time you slept?"

Kurt shrugged, sitting at the other end of the room and bringing his legs up to hug them. He bowed down his head to rest it on his knees and sighed, closing his eyes. He heard other people filling the room and then eventually Mr. Wood started talking to them.

"So, guys, we'll run through Hey Soul Sister a few times and then we'll start on the Christmas song. Kurt, Blaine, have you started practicing your duet?" Count on their Math teacher to be oblivious to the teenage drama going on. "Kurt? Is he alive? Someone poke him awake, please."

Kurt raised his head before anyone could touch him. "I'm awake, no need to use force!" he snapped. His voice surprised him; it was rough. It figured; all he had been doing lately was sobbing loudly into his pillow.

One of the guys cried 'oh my god a vampire!' but apologised soon after when no one laughed.

"Alright, guys, let's do this," their teacher announced, obviously trying to break the awkwardness of the moment.

Kurt put on his best show face and if it weren't for how he looked, no one would have noticed how terrible he felt from watching him perform. There were slight differences in their performance, though, mainly Blaine staying farther away from Kurt than usual – which was saying a lot since it had been offered a week before that they should save some money by making them share a pair of pants.

Things got worse when it was time to see what Baby It's Cold Outside looked like. Kurt and Blaine stood as far away from each other as the room allowed and they pointedly did not look at each other throughout the song.

"Why do I have a feeling this song isn't romantic but a tale of rape?" Andrew asked, which defused the tension and summarised how bad it had been all at once.

"Blaine, Kurt, is everything alright?"

"Perfectly fine, sir," Blaine said coldly. "Right, Kurt?"

"I don't know. I'm too much of a stuck up goody-goody bitch to say anything bad." With that, he left the choir room before they saw him crying because of course, the tears were back once again.

A few hours later, there was a knock on his door. He rolled off his bed to open and saw half of the Warblers standing there with their pillows under one arm and all kinds of food in the other, from ice cream tubs to chocolate boxes to bulk-sized boxes of cookies.

Wiping his eyes, he let them in and they immediately started building what looked a lot like a fort in the middle of the room.

"Blaine is an idiot but it doesn't mean we are, too. You look like someone murdered your dad in front of you and then force-fed him to you. You need a good dose of boy-love," Jake said, pulling Kurt inside their fort.

They spent the evening watching chick flicks on Kurt's laptop and eating until they felt like they would throw up. Then, they asked Kurt what was wrong and he ended up crying again as he told them all that had happened and how terrible he felt. He hated to cry in front of people but it seemed to be the only thing he could do lately.

"We're worse than girls and I know what I'm talking about. I've been to many a sleepover with teenage girls," Kurt said when he felt he had cried all the tears he had in his body.

They burst out laughing and shrugged, saying that it didn't matter as long as their Spy Kid was smiling again.

"You know, he's not a bad guy," David said after a long time in silence. "I've never seen him act that way. He's really—he likes you a lot, Kurt."

"I know. I'm an idiot for not seeing it sooner."

"Well, yeah. Sorry!" Hugo said. "It's true, though. All he did all day was serenading you but you were so oblivious. I just wanted to shake you and say 'Hey! Kid! Blaine loves you! Wake up!'"

"You should have," Kurt said darkly. "I guess I should go apologise to him?"

"Don't you dare," Wes snapped. "He's the one who owes you an apology. No. You stay there and look pretty and you wait for him to come around. It'll come sooner or later."

"Yeah but in the meantime I'm dying inside."

"Oh, you little drama queen, you. He's not dead. He's just a stubborn imbecile. You should have seen his face when he saw you curled up in the choir room. He thought no one saw he looked crushed but they could see it in the space station. Soon, Kurt."

The week before Sectionals went by quickly. Kurt felt slightly better now that he knew he had people on his side. Blaine was still ignoring him, which made rehearsals for Baby It's Cold Outside very unnerving. Another tough moment had been the first rehearsal of Hey Soul Sister in the auditorium. It was the first time Kurt went in it since Blaine and he had sung A Whole New World. He would have to get used to it since it had been decided that Sectionals would be at Dalton Academy.

There had been a shift in the situation, though. The more Kurt looked like he felt better and the more miserable Blaine looked. Kurt decided after two days of worrying over this to let it slide. He was done losing sleep over him. He had promised David he was.

"Kurt, Blaine, you need to stand closer or else the whole thing looks weird," Mr. Wood said for the hundredth time in an hour. "Guys, come on. It's our last rehearsal before the competition. You need to actually listen to me for once."

Blaine gave Kurt a sideways glance and rolled his eyes before taking a step backwards.

"Better?" he asked and their teacher nodded.

It lasted five minutes.

"What did I tell you? Will I have to attach you to one another to get you to stand at less than four feet away? Take five."

Kurt took a deep breath and went over to where Blaine was standing, looking cross.

"Blaine?" he said hesitantly. When he got nothing more than a jerk of the head as a reply, he continued. "Can we try not to act like we hate each other for the show? We have no chance of winning if you and I act like we killed each other's parents."

Blaine looked at him for a moment, his eyes scrutinising his face. Kurt bit his lip but held his gaze when their eyes met. His heart was thumping in his chest as he tried his hardest to make his eyes say 'I don't hate you oh my god I love you so much you stupid asshole'.

"I don't hate you, for the record," Blaine finally said and walked away.

"Is that a yes?" Kurt called after him. He got no answer but he already knew what it was. Blaine would have been more vocal if he had been against the idea.

Kurt was checking everyone's ties for the last time. New Directions had just finished their second performance and it was The Hipsters' turn. Kurt would have liked to watch them from backstage but apparently, prep boys were unable to tie their ties correctly when under nerves, even if they did it just fine every other day of the year.

"Can you help me with mine?"

Kurt's head snapped up and he stared at Blaine standing in front of him, holding his tie like it had profoundly insulted him and the house of Andersons.

"Yes, sure," Kurt said faintly and got up to stand in front of Blaine. He could feel the boy's green eyes on him as his trembling fingers tied the piece of fabric. He was sure he was going to apologise and then they would hug but as soon as Kurt was done, Blaine left the room.

What felt like seconds later, Kurt was standing on the stage in the dark, waiting for Blaine to send them the silent signal to start singing. Kurt shut his mind and started singing as soon as the lights went on. He could not afford to look miserable. Blaine did as instructed, he stood closer to Kurt. He even went back to his previous take on the choreography, directing specific part of the song at Kurt - _I know I wouldn't forget you so I went and let you blow my mind_- like everything was normal.

He must have looked miserable, though, because he caught Rachel silently telling to smile. He did the best he could but it still felt strange on his face. When Blaine glanced at him before singing _I want the world to see you'll be with me_, his breath caught in his throat and he almost forgot what he was supposed to sing.

They left the stage when the song was over and Blaine pointedly avoided him the whole time he spent backstage before he had to go back alone to sing Thinking of You. Kurt was ready to go sit in the audience to watch him but no less than five people stopped him from leaving and steered him closer to the stage.

"You need to stay here to watch this."

The opening bars sounded strange to Kurt. He was not a huge fan of Katy Perry but that sounded—that was—

"It's a little bit funny this feeling inside. I'm not one of those who can easily hide," Blaine started singing as a single spotlight fell on him.

That was _so_not a Katy Perry song. Kurt gasped and he heard his friends chuckling.

"That's—tha—No way!" he whispered manically. He put his hand over his mouth as he watched Blaine work his way through Your Song. "And it's the Moulin Rouge version even though we both know he prefers Elton John's!"

Blaine glanced his way a few times during the song but he kept his eyes glued on Kurt as he sang '_yours are the sweetest eyes that I've ever seen_'.

Kurt could not breathe. He could not move, could not think, all he could do was stand there with his jaw stupidly hanging open because, oh my god, _Blaine_. At the same time, there was a roller coaster of emotions inside of him, from love to anger to remorse to anxiety to full-on fear of what would happen next, when Blaine would exit the stage.

He was so worried over when Blaine would appear in front of him that he did not notice when he did show up. Kurt grabbed him by the lapels of his blazer and pulled him after him, getting farther away in the shadows.

"We need to talk," Kurt said.

"We do."

"What was that?" He could hear himself saying the same words a week and a half ago, but this time his voice had an entire different tone. "Blaine, please explain to me what's going on because I can't follow you right now."

Blaine bit his lip and looked away for a moment, looking like he was trying to find the right words to use.

"You have issues, Kurt—" Kurt opened his mouth, ready to snap at him to shut his face or something equally as mature, but Blaine put his fingers on his lips to shut him up. "You have issues and I didn't take this into account. I thought that putting you in a new school would solve them and make you okay again but it did not. I've been insensitive and so caught up in trying to win you over that I never stopped to think _why_it didn't seem to work."

"Blaine—" Kurt started again but was stopped.

"I apologise. I've been a major dick to you and I have absolutely no excuse for it. I was frustrated because I was not getting what I want and I'm a spoiled brat who always gets what he wants and I don't know how to deal with stuff I can't control so I become stupid and I call you a stuck up goody-goody bitch. I'm sorry."

"Couldn't you apologise before? I hardly think this came to you as you were on the stage."

"I was afraid of how you would react, so I decided the best thing to do was to blow your mind with this song and then see how you would react and then apologise. I'm a bit of a coward."

"You serenaded me in front of an entire audience. _Again_. You're not a coward. Also, you have to stop wooing me with songs."

"Why? You don't like it?" Blaine looked really worried suddenly.

"No, because it works too much."

Blaine pulled him forward by his tie and kissed him. Kurt lost his balance and crashed against Blaine, who wrapped his arms around him.

"I owe you an apology, too," Kurt said once Blaine had stopped covering his lips with kisses to breathe. "I shouldn't have reacted like I did. It was stupid and very immature. I don't know why I was so scared."

"Because you are a poor little traumatised kid who needs to be dealt with slowly and patiently like a scared, fluffy bunny and I didn't see it before?"

"Blaine, you're talking nonsense."

He nodded and leaned in to kiss Kurt again. Somewhere in the distance, Kurt heard his and Blaine's name being called. He guessed it was time to go on stage to find out who had won the competition but he honestly could not care less. Eventually, though, just around the time they had begun making out, someone cleared their throat to their left.

"Guys. We're waiting for you." Alex looked like he wanted to be somewhere else, preferably very far from where he was at the moment.

Sighing a lot, Blaine nodded and grabbed Kurt's hand to walk to the stage. Right before they did, though, they both did a quick check up to make sure it was not obvious they had been sucking each other's face off right before joining the rest of their team.

After the dark of their corner, the spotlights were blinding and Kurt squinted. The host of the event glared at him and Blaine for a moment before moving on to give a particularly boring and long speech. Blaine was holding his hand, their fingers entwined, and he had to bite the insides of his cheeks to not grin stupidly.

His attention went back to the man when he felt everyone around him tensing.

"—hereby disqualified."

"What?" he asked Blaine, who was staring at the man with a dumbstruck expression.

"Oh you've got to be _fucking_kidding me," Mr. Wood said, making all of them jump, before storming to the front of the stage.

"We're disqualified," Blaine told Kurt in a white voice. "We—you joined too close to Sectionals and shouldn't have performed with us, but you did, and it's against the rules. But—that's bullshit. That's—"

Blaine took a step forward like he wanted to go argue with the organisers himself but stopped when David, Wes and Andrew left the group to do it. As co-captains, it was their job to go fight for their rights. Instead, he fell into a frustrated silence, his knuckles white from how tightly he was squeezing Kurt's hand.

As much as he was frustrated at how unfair it was to disqualify them _after_the competition, Kurt felt a wave of relief wash over him. New Directions were going to win and they would not get disbanded. They had worked so hard to be able to go to New York that Kurt would have probably died if he had taken that opportunity away from them.

"They're lucky were well-behaved prep school boys otherwise there would be a fucking riot right now," Jake muttered.

After a few minutes of arguing while the Warblers stood in a nervous silence, their teacher shook his head and shrugged sadly.

Next to them, New Directions erupted in loud cheers as it was announced they had won. Kurt tried to hide his smile for a moment but it filled his face when Blaine softly pushed him towards them. He crossed the stage quickly and hugged the first person he reached. Brittany hugged him back tightly and squealed in his ear.

He hugged every one of them – even Puck, who had never touched him unless it was to throw him in a dumpster.

Soon, though, they had to go back to Lima. Kurt waved them goodbye on the front porch of the school, weirdly at peace with being disqualified from Sectionals. There was a part of him that felt guilty to possibly be the cause of the disbanding of New Directions. To know that it would not happen made him feel way better, to the point where he felt like he had no worries in the world at the moment. He knew that sooner or later the stress of midterms would catch up with him, but for now, he was happy just to have nothing to worry about.

The others looked more upset but Blaine assured him they would come around in a few days, once they started focusing on the Christmas recital and revising. Even if the mood was less than happy, they sat in the common room with the rest of them. Kurt truly felt like nothing could bring him down. He had Blaine back and it was even better than before.

David wiggled his eyebrows at them as they sat close together, Kurt in an armchair and Blaine on the arm rest. Blaine winked at David before leaning down to kiss Kurt.

Kurt acted before he could think about it. He jerked away, turning his head so Blaine kissed his cheek and lost his balance, stumbling on him.

"Smooth," Wes chuckled and Blaine huffed.

Kurt looked away, aware of the blush on his cheeks as Blaine wiggled until he was sitting next to Kurt in the armchair and wrapped his arm around his shoulders.

"Issues," he whispered. "We'll work on them." He kissed his cheek again and pressed his forehead on Kurt's temple.

Slowly, the common room emptied until it was just Kurt, Blaine and David.

"Alright, guys, I'm out. I want to take a shower to take off this make up," he gave Kurt a pointed look because he was the one who had insisted they should wear foundation, "before curfew. Good night."

"He has a very good idea. I say, we both shower and then meet in your room in twenty minutes? We can have a sleepover!" Blaine said excitedly. "We have so much to catch up on. It's been a week and a half but it feels like a year or two. And my mom sent me a tin full of homemade cookies. _And_Mr. Wood got us a permission to skip class tomorrow morning so we can sleep in to recover from the competition."

"You had me at sleepover, to be honest," Kurt said with a grin, leaning into Blaine as they walked towards the dormitories.

Kurt quickly stopped by his room and went to shower after Blaine untangled himself from his side one floor below. They had twenty minutes until curfew and they could not afford to have anyone know that Blaine was going to spend the night in Kurt's room. He needed to be there for when the boy came back so he would not wait in the hallway, giving their less than cunning plan away.

Once back in his room, Kurt opened Facebook and stared at it for a long time. He was wondering whether he should change his relationship status or not. He pointedly ignored how Rachel had updated New Directions' status as '_We won, bitches!_'. A soft knock on his door extracted him from his thoughts and he hurriedly opened the door to Blaine.

"Ah! Your hair!" he exclaimed before he could hold it back, putting his hand over his mouth as he stared in complete shock at Blaine.

It was the first time he saw Blaine right after he had stepped out of the shower. Kurt stared at his curls and saw Blaine blushing.

"Yeah, you understand now why I wear so much hair gel? Kurt, please, stop staring."

"I love it," he said, stepping forward to touch them. "No, really," he added when Blaine rolled his eyes.

"What were you doing?" Blaine asked, stepping away from Kurt. Apparently, he had found his sensitive spot.

"Debating whether to tell the world we're dating or not." Kurt bit his lip, looking at Blaine to see how he would react. They had not yet discussed what they were exactly.

"Well, if you don't, I will. You wouldn't want to let me be 'in a relationship but it's complicated', right?" Blaine said, taking Kurt's laptop and sitting on his bed.

He bent his head down as he logged into his account and Kurt looked at him from where he sat on his computer chair. He looked so different, with his wild hair, loose t-shirt and plaid pyjama pants but that didn't stop Kurt's heart from skipping a beat or two as their eyes met.

"Done. Now you need to go change yours or else I will look like I'm desperate."

"But you are, remember? You had to sing an Elton John song to be able to apologise to me. You are _so_desperate because I have you wrapped around my finger."

"You don't," he protested while Kurt sat next to him on the bed.

"Give me that," he asked and Blaine immediately gave him his laptop. "See?"

"Wha-? No! That was just me giving you back what belongs to you."

"Shut up," Kurt said, rolling his eyes and kissing him quickly before opening Facebook.

"Oh, look! I have a relationship request. I wonder if I should accept it or not…"

Blaine pouted at him, using the puppy dog eyes he had only seen him use when he desperately wanted something, like to have Kurt watch the newest Katy Perry video or sing a Katy Perry song or talk about Katy Perry.

"Wrapped around my finger," he chanted as he accepted the request. He refreshed the page and watched with a smile '_Kurt Hummel is now in a relationship with Blaine Anderson_' appear on his news feed.

He logged off and put his computer back on his nightstand.

"Hey, by the way, weren't you supposed to sing Thinking of You?" Kurt asked after a moment of them silently lying on his bed, Blaine's head on his chest.

"No." Blaine looked up to give Kurt that smile that made him weak to the knees.

"No? But—"

"It was a lie. It was planned from the start that I would sing Your Song. This was supposed to be my 'Kurt, this is me looking crazy on a stage for you, please be my boyfriend' moment from the start. Instead, of course, it ended up being 'Kurt, I am a stupid asshole, please be my boyfriend anyway'. Close enough."

"And yet you keep denying that I have you wrapped around my finger. This is useless, darling. I've had you at my feet from the moment I asked you what was going on in those stairs, like the epic spy that I am."

"Fine. You're right. Whatever. I give up." He put his head down for a moment before looking up again. "You called me darling?"

"I did?"

"Yes," he said with a grin before moving up to kiss Kurt. He hugged him tightly and kissed his temple. "Oh I'm so happy, Kurt." He stayed silent for a long time and then said, with a chuckle, "Facebook must be exploding right now."

The next morning, he had a hundred and fifty notifications, with most comments different wordings of 'finally!' He definitely ignored the suggestive offers Santana made, Rachel's offer to introduce him to her dads or Puck and his father once again talking about his presupposed sex life.

At first sight, the boys at Dalton looked like they had a certain sense of aesthetic; at least, in comparison to most high school boys. But it was just at first sight. Kurt found out about it pretty soon; precisely, when he was standing at the top of a stepladder, trying to hang Christmas decorations in their commons. It took him ten minutes to realise he would have to do everything himself otherwise he might have to redo it all. In the ten minutes he trusted his friends to help, they had managed to break five branches of the tree and hang Christmas wreaths upside down.

That's how he ended up working while they gave him instructions and watched him, knowing very well they were annoying him. The only person who didn't look like he was enjoying himself was Blaine, who insisted on standing at the bottom of the stepladder in case Kurt fell down. Even if it was only four steps high.

It was a nice change from his usual routine so he didn't complain too much. In the past two weeks, all he had been doing was study, rehearse for the Christmas recital and sleep, when he had time left. The only times he could see Blaine were when they were revising or rehearsing together, or in the few classes they shared. Incidentally, they had not had a second alone in weeks, except for brief make out sessions late at night.

Once he was done and the room was ready for the weekend's show, he threw himself in his favourite armchair and sighed. Blaine immediately took his hand and squeezed it. He leaned in to kiss Kurt but he shook his head. Without a word, Blaine retreated to his seat.

"I just want to pretend I have nothing to do for five minutes, okay?" He glanced at the pile of textbooks he hauled from his room and grunted, closing his eyes. "I think my brains are about to spontaneously combust."

He had three minutes to relax before they had to leave for the final rehearsal before the show. Since he and Blaine got together, their performance of Baby It's Cold Outside significantly improved, to the point that Mr. Wood had to tell them to tone it down on the sexual tension.

The only part they still had a problem with was the waltzing. While they both knew how to do it – Kurt could probably waltz in his sleep now, after teaching all the guys in glee club and his dad before the wedding – they did not know how to follow. They both kept trying to lead, which inevitably lead to a few sways before they walked on each other's feet.

"Let me lead!" Blaine said for the hundredth time, after they walked into each other as they both took a step forward.

"I'm _trying_but I've never done it before. It would be easier if you stopped stepping on my feet every single time."

"I wouldn't walk on your feet if you stopped trying to win the lead. It's not a competition. We're trying to follow the choreography."

Behind them, the other guys were chuckling. They had been told they could leave but enjoyed the show too much to go.

"This is actually couple counselling," David said.

"Shut up, Dave," Blaine snapped, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Kurt," he began harshly.

Kurt crossed his arms over his chest and raised his eyebrow. Blaine took a step forward and held out his arms, waiting for Kurt to join him.

"Let go. Just let go and it'll work. Don't think," he continued, his tone softer.

Kurt rolled his eyes but nodded. He shook his shoulders a few times to let go of his tension and took his position again. Blaine leaned in close and whispered 'trust me' right before the music started again.

Kurt closed his eyes and did as Blaine told him; he let go and stopped fighting for the lead. He felt himself gliding across the room. The feeling was foreign and he felt like he could fall at any moment. Blaine had a firm hold of his waist, as though he could feel his fear.

"Good job! I knew you could do it. Now one more time, from the top," Mr. Wood called as he stopped the music.

Kurt moaned, leaning his head on Blaine's shoulder for a second before taking his place at the other side of the room.

They spent the next days waltzing through the hallways and in the common rooms. It was never good enough for the both of them. At first, people got annoyed at them but eventually, they realised the hilarity of the situation. They never stopped arguing as they danced.

"Arch your back a bit more on this part, you look too stiff."

"My back doesn't actually bend this far that way."

"Well make it!"

"Are you trying to break my hand? I won't run away, you can relax your grip."

"Get your hand off my ass!"

On Friday night, Kurt collapsed on his bed and let out a long breath. He had just finished his last midterm and the relief was immense. The show was the next day and then he was going home for the Christmas break.

"My feet hurt so much," Blaine whined, lying on the bed next to Kurt. "I have never danced so much in my entire life."

"Don't tell me. I wonder how I'll be able to do it again tomorrow."

Blaine hummed, turning on his side and pulling Kurt closer.

"I've been an ass lately, haven't I? You need to tell me because I don't see it."

"Not so much. We're all tired, it's normal to snap at each other. Just yesterday, David and Wes got in a fight. _David and Wes_."

"So that's what happened! I wondered why David slept on my floor. I guess he had been locked out of his room."

Kurt moved in closer to Blaine, sighing at the feeling of Blaine's warm chest against his back.

"I've been thinking a lot, lately," he started, waiting to see if Blaine would interrupt him to crack a joke. When he did not, Kurt continued. "I think I'm overcoming my incapacity to kiss you in public."

"Oh, you mean your phobia of PDAs?"

"In so many words, yeah. I—I kind of want to show the world we're together. Don't say a thing. Don't." Kurt warned him. "I mean, what could possibly happen if we did kiss in public? No one's going to come out of nowhere and shoot us dead. Teenagers make out in public all the time, right?"

"Yes, you're completely right. I'm so proud of you, Kurt. You're dealing with your issues. This is awesome."

"I don't know what's wrong with me."

"Nothing but your love for Lady Gaga," Blaine teased him.

Kurt elbowed him in the stomach.

"Shut up, she's brilliant."

"Not as much as Katy, though."

Kurt rolled his eyes but didn't reply.

"Ah! I win!" Blaine exclaimed happily.

"By default. Only by default."

"You wish," Blaine said before he yawned loudly and pulled the covers on top of both of them. He kissed Kurt's neck and wished him good night. Kurt sighed happily and returned the wish.

"Oh my god, there are so many people!" Jake said as he came back from his mission to spy on the audience. "All of our parents are there, and your friends from Lima, Kurt."

"The glee club? They all came?" Kurt stared at him, his mouth hanging open.

"Looks like it."

Kurt put his hand over his heart, completely overwhelmed. He had never even imagined that they would come to something as futile as a recital. It was mostly for students and their parents who came to pick them up for Christmas. It was a nice way to end the term and wish everyone a merry Christmas before going away for two weeks.

"Kurt, are you okay? You're livid," Blaine asked him, concerned.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. I'm just—shocked."

"It's awesome!" Blaine sounded over enthusiastic over that fact. "I do wonder where they will sit everyone, though. Some people will have to stand up. Maybe sit the kids on the floor."

"That's what they were doing, yeah. Mr. Wood offered to move this to the auditorium but there's no way we're doing that. Kurt spent hours decorating and there's a snowstorm outside. It's all so Christmas-y." Jake waved his hands to emphasise his statement.

"Alright everyone, tie check," Kurt called at the boys lounging around the room.

An orderly line formed in front of him and he started straightening everyone's ties until they were all perfectly tied.

"Guys, five minutes," their teacher said, poking his head through the door. "You'll have a little less room to move than planned. Try not to kill yourselves, or your parents."

Kurt breathed in deeply, trying to let out some of his stress. He was not nervous for the group songs; it was Baby It's Cold Outside that terrified him. He had done solos and duets in front of an audience before, but it was the first time he was going to do one that could potentially cause uproar. It was, after all, a duet traditionally sung by a man and a woman and there they were, he and Blaine, musically flirting with each other.

Right before they stepped out of the classroom they were using as a dressing room, they had a group hug and Kurt took a moment to look at all of them, so grateful to have met them and be friends with them.

The group songs went well. The crowd was enthusiastic – well, it was not hard to please parents, Kurt had to be honest – and he could have gone on forever. He was having a lot of fun, the pressure of the exams gone making them all cheerful.

But then it was over, and it was time for Baby It's Cold Outside. They all left the stage so the few props Blaine and Kurt needed could be brought out. Before they had to go back, Kurt took Blaine aside. He bit his lip as he studied his boyfriend's face. Kurt only nodded and the smile on Blaine's face told him he had understood what Kurt had been discussing it earlier that morning. He motioned for one of the musicians and whispered something in his ear. The guy frowned but nodded without a word.

Slightly shaking from nerves, Kurt followed Blaine on stage. It had been decided that they would re-enact most of the lyrics of the song, mostly the part where Kurt kept running away from Blaine.

The result, once on stage, was better than anything Kurt could have ever expected. At the '_my father will start to worry_' line, Burt loudly said 'you bet I will'. Kurt rolled his eyes but continued like nothing had happened. For once, Kurt didn't get caught in the coat, scarf and hat he had to put on so Blaine could take them off. It was a first. During all of their rehearsals, Kurt would not be able to find the sleeve of his coat or would make a knot in the scarf that Blaine was unable to undo.

The snowstorm outside only gave more sense to Blaine's line, even though they had joked the rest of the Warblers should dress up as snowflakes and do an interpretive dance to represent it if nature didn't give them one.

Kurt's palms were getting sweaty as he knew what was coming. Blaine closed in on him, putting his hands on Kurt's hips as he said more than sang '_man, your lips look delicious_'. Kurt's heart was thumping in his ribcage. It took all of his will to keep on singing instead of falling into Blaine's arms or melting because the way he looked at him was absolutely irresistible.

Kurt's breath itched as Blaine sang his line about waves upon a tropical shore. He knew it was coming. As he opened his mouth to do his next line, he caught Blaine's eyes and nodded again. The boy leaned in and kissed him. Kurt tried to kiss him back but Blaine moved away, walking backwards with his eyes still on Kurt as he said '_gosh, your lips are delicious_'.

They finished the song and Kurt could hardly believe it when they got a standing ovation. The rest of the Warblers joined them on stage and they bowed a few times before it was all over and they were back in the classroom, vibrating with energy.

Kurt hugged and was hugged by everyone, bouncing and laughing as he did so. When he finally came to Blaine, he grabbed his face and kissed him full on the mouth, ignoring the catcalls and whistles.

"Oh my god, you're fixed!" Blaine cried happily, kissing Kurt again. It did not work quite well because they were too busy laughing.

Eventually, they left the room and met up with their parents. Kurt and Blaine got separated when he went to see his mom and dad, right before Burt and Carole found Kurt in the crowd. They both hugged him tightly, his dad longer than ever before.

"You were fantastic up there, Kurt," he said, the fond look he gave his son making Kurt feel warm and safe. "Of course that part where you kissed this boy was not my favourite but—yeah, it was awesome."

The next hug was slightly harder on his body; Finn nearly tackled him to the floor with how strongly he grabbed Kurt. Once he was freed from his step-brother's grip, he saw the rest of the glee club smiling at him. He waved at them, his cheeks aching from smiling so widely.

They all turned around when a dignified voice spoke from somewhere next to them. A very – for lack of a better word – _posh_couple was standing to their left with in between them, Blaine.

"Hi, you must be Mr. Anderson. I'm Burt Hummel, Kurt's dad, and this is my wife, Carole," Burt said, stepping forward and shaking Blaine's father's hand. Kurt was too petrified to move. He had never actually envisioned meeting his in-laws.

"Nice to meet you, sir. You must be Kurt? Junior told us so much about you."

Kurt couldn't help it. He burst out laughing while pointing at Blaine, who was redder than the stripes on his tie.

"Can I ask what's so funny?" the man asked dignifiedly.

"It's just –_Junior_." Kurt took a deep breath, trying to build back his composure. He wiped his teary eyes and extended his hand. "This is not how I'm introducing myself. Hi, nice to meet you, sir. It's a pleasure to meet Blaine's father."

Then, like the perfect gentleman he was, he took Blaine's mother's hand and kissed it with a flourish of the hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, madam."

She smiled widely – her smile Blaine's – and patted his cheek.

"Aren't you the cutest thing ever! Your parents must be so proud of you."

Kurt felt the unsaid detail hanging in the air between them and he did not want it to surface negatively, so he took the matter at hand.

"Carole is my step-mother, actually. My mom died when I was ten. But she's like a mother to me, now."

"And you're just like my son, Kurt." They exchanged a warm smile.

Kurt could feel his friends getting restless so he subtly told them he would meet them later. He had a feeling he would be stuck in this conversation for a while.

"So, Mr. Hummel—"

"Burt, please."

"—Burt. What did you think of our sons' _performance _earlier?"

Kurt took a step closer to Blaine and whispered 'tell me you're out, tell me they know, _please_, Blaine, tell me this wasn't your coming out' manically. Blaine shook his head and took Kurt's hand in his, entwining their fingers then winking at him.

"Well, I guess I'll have to get used to it, huh."

"This is one point we have in common."

They kept on talking about their sons like they were not standing right next to them while Carole and Blaine's mother were bonding. Blaine's father called him Junior several times, which never failed to make Kurt giggle.

Eventually, Blaine and Kurt managed to sneak away from them and found New Directions and the Warblers in the deserted senior's common room, talking like they had not competed against each other less than a month before.

Kurt and Blaine retold them what had just happened and as he had guessed, everyone laughed when they found out Blaine was called Junior by his parents.

"I'm the fourth one with this name in the family! Don't judge me! It's not my fault if they think they're the aristocracy or something equally as important."

"I'm warning you. We are not calling our son Blaine," Kurt stated coldly, putting on his best pretentious face. He then turned to face his friends with a huge smile. "I can't believe you all came down here to see us!"

"Kurt, even if you're in another school, you're still one of us. Thank god Sam and Artie's parents own minivans, though," Mercedes said.

Kurt got up and called for a group hug. He had not realised how much he missed them and it hurt a little to see them all there but knowing he was not, even though they said the opposite, one of them.

At one point in the conversation, Karofsky came up. Kurt tensed, not sure he wanted to go in that direction.

"No, don't worry, Kurt. It's actually funny. For a week he had a shiner bigger than Sam's but he wouldn't tell anyone how he got it," Artie told him.

Blaine burst out laughing and it took him a good minute to calm down enough to talk.

"I'm guilty," he said, raising his hand. When he saw everyone's disbelieving faces, he continued. "So, Kurt and I had just fought and I was really angry when I left the auditorium. And he was there, right outside and I was already angry at him for everything he did but I was ready to let it slide. But then he started asking how 'gay explosion' was going and then he asked about Kurt and all I could think was 'you fucking bastard, you stole his first kiss' so I punched him."

Everyone talked all at once. Some wanted to know what this kiss business was while others wanted to know how he had made it out alive.

"Okay, okay," he said, raising his hands to shut everyone. "So after he recovered from the blow, he looked like he was about to skin me or something, but then this woman came out of nowhere and told him to get lost. Well, not in those words but you get it. And then she called me Tickle Me Doeface and asked to be invited to my wedding with Porcelain." He said the last part with a look of utter confusion on his face.

"Sue!" Kurt and the McKinley kids said at once before bursting out laughing.

"I can't believe you punched Karofsky," Kurt cooed and leaned in to kiss Blaine.

"I can't either. What were the odds of me making it out alive? He's twice my size when I stand up on a table."

"You're my hero." Kurt grinned widely and kissed him again, ignoring the protests of the others.

"I preferred it when Kurt had a blockage with public displays of affection," Hugo complained.

Kurt kissed Blaine again, longer and deeper this time, just to annoy him. He could see himself getting used to this in the near future.

The school was almost empty. Most families were gone, some of them having a few hours of road ahead of them. Only a few Warblers had stayed behind, obviously not wanting to leave, because leaving would mean that it was all over. They had worked so hard on that show and it was hard to admit that it was behind them.

The glee club had left half an hour earlier because Sam had to bring the van back before nine. They all promised to get together for lunch during the break and that made Kurt feel a lot better. Finn stayed, though, saying he would go back with his mom and Burt.

Kurt was sitting in the common room in his usual armchair with Blaine, David, Wes and Alex. Finn was sitting in Jake's. They were not talking; the silence was comfortable enough to not break it. Their chairs had been moved at the other side of the room for the time of the show, making them feel disoriented and out of place.

"Hey, look, mistletoe," Wes said, pointing upwards.

Kurt looked up and sure enough, he and Blaine were sitting under one of the many arches crossing the ceiling. On this particular one, someone – definitely not Kurt – had hung a bough of mistletoe.

"I don't want to see this," Finn said quickly. "I'll go try to find a bathroom."

"We're coming with you!" the three other guys said as they sprung to their feet to follow him. Blaine and Kurt did not even notice they were gone.

Blaine smiled softly at him and moved forward in his chair. Kurt did the same and Blaine whispered 'I love you' before their lips met. Blaine cupped Kurt's jaw with his hand, his thumb pressed on his cheek. Kurt licked Blaine's bottom lip and the other boy opened his mouth, deepening the kiss at the same time.

"Kurt, we're lea—oh god."

They jerked apart and saw their parents looking at them and trying to hide their looks of embarrassment. Blaine faintly said 'mistletoe' and pointed upwards.

"Sorry. Hum. Kurt, we're leaving. It's a long drive and it's getting late."

"Okay, dad," Kurt replied in a white voice. He wanted to crawl under the floorboards.

He got up and hugged David, Wes and Alex tightly, promising to Skype them a few times over the break. Blaine and his parents followed them as they crossed the school to get to the parking lot; Blaine and Kurt were walking slower, taking their time.

"Me too," Kurt said after a moment. "I love you, too."

Blaine let go of his hand to wrap his arm around Kurt's shoulder, his smile the biggest Kurt had ever seen on his face.

They eventually reached the door and it meant they had to say their goodbyes. Blaine hugged him tightly, like he was trying to crawl inside Kurt's skin. Kurt returned it as tightly, gripping the back of Blaine's coat. When they broke apart, they lightly kissed and Kurt pouted when Blaine took a step behind.

"Two weeks." Blaine was holding onto the lapels of Kurt's coat as he spoke.

"I'll call you every day," Kurt promised as he began wrapping his scarf around his neck.

The two families exited the building, the snow slowly falling. Everything was covered with a thick layer of sparkling white. In the distance, Kurt could see the Christmas lights hanging from houses and the café he and the Warblers often visited. There was not a sound, like the entire city was asleep or time had been suspended, giving an eerie ambiance to the scenery. The only thing that could be heard was the snow creaking under their feet. Before they went separate ways for their cars, Kurt hugged Blaine one last time and kissed his cheek.

He got to his father's car before the Andersons did and so he waved at Blaine from the backseat as they drove by them. Blaine blew him a kiss and waved back. He looked at him through the back window until his dad turned out of the parking lot and he disappeared.

Finn rolled his eyes, which earned him a punch from Kurt.

"So, have you started decorating the house? You better not have started without me," Kurt said haughtily. "We all know I am the only one in this car with a sensible taste for interior decoration – no offense, Carole."

And just like that, Kurt was back to his old life, the one that was not surreal or taking place in a Gothic building, surrounded by open-minded boys with a passion for singing show tunes. He had Christmas and get-togethers to look forward to and he felt so light-hearted he might have burst out into a song.

Christmas was possibly the best Kurt had ever had. After spending six ones alone with his dad, to have other people in the house made it so much more cheerful. Even if it meant that Rachel was there because her dads were Jewish and even if Christmas had no signification to her, she wanted to be with her boyfriend. Kurt could deal with Rachel pretty well when, a few hours earlier, he had had a three hours long call on Skype with Blaine. Even if the boy had managed to convince him to show him the Single Ladies choreography. Also, he had to say that Carole's cooking was _way _better than his father's.

The best part of the holiday, though was when Blaine appeared through the kitchen doors, throwing his arms to the sides and saying 'Ta-da!'

"Blaine! What are you doing here?" Kurt shouted, jumping out of his skin and dropping the bowl of cookie batter he was mixing.

He crossed the room and wrapped him in a tight embrace, almost lifting him off the floor. Blaine laughed happily and kissed him once he was steady on the floor again.

"My parents decided to go visit our family in England but I asked if I could stay at yours. Your dad and Carole know. We've been plotting this together for a few days already."

Kurt put his hands on Blaine's shoulders and held him at arm's length to look him over.

"That is one atrocious sweater, love," he said, scrunching up his nose before going back to his cookies.

"You'll be glad, then, to know my parents left me money so I could go buy some new clothes." Blaine had followed him and was now eating chocolate chips straight out of the bag. Carole hit his hand with the wood spoon.

"Oh, this is the best Christmas _ever_. Can you drive us there tomorrow?" Kurt asked Carole with pleading eyes. "You see how he dresses. Desperate times call for desperate measures."

She agreed before warning Blaine that he was in for hours of hearing Kurt swoon over clothes. Blaine said he was ready for it if it meant not having Kurt complaining over his clothes every time he saw him out of his uniform. Kurt once again complained about the sweater so Blaine took it off, staying in his white t-shirt. It looked like it was from some college; it had the same layout: the name in large letters, the crest in the middle with the establishment date around it and the school's motto underneath.

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? Really?" Kurt asked as he read what was written.

"Harry Potter is cool, okay?" Blaine said defiantly.

"Tomorrow," Kurt sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

There was still one unanswered question in Kurt's mind. He told Blaine to help Carole finish while he went to see his father in the living room. He leaned in the doorway, not sure of how to bring it up.

"Dad?" he finally asked. "Where will Blaine sleep?"

The only spare room they had had become Finn's room when he and his mom moved in. It was either Kurt's room or the living room sofa bed, which Kurt and his dad knew was the worst punishment the Hummels could give to anyone.

"In your room," Burt finally said, never looking away from the television.

"That's so unfair," Finn muttered, looking darkly at Kurt. "Rachel always has to sleep on the sofa bed."

"Well, there's no chance one of them will become pregnant, huh?" Burt replied. "Kurt! That doesn't mean you can—you know." He took a deep breath. "I don't want to hear anything. And use condoms and—" Kurt starting saying 'don't' over and over again but his father finished anyway. "—lubricant."

Kurt stared at his dad in horror. He had not just heard that. His father had not just talked to him about sex in front of his step-brother. No. This did not happen.

"Dad! Oh my god! Please!"

"What! I'm not an idiot, I know how it works for—two guys. And it's goes for you too, Finn. We're not telling not to—with Rachel. But be careful. You two are old enough to know what you're doing, and we'd rather have you do it here than on the backseat of a car."

His father was still not looking away from the television but Kurt saw that his ears and neck were bright red. Kurt and Finn exchanged a horrified glance. Without a word, Kurt left the living room, having heard enough. He was beet red when he joined Blaine to clean up the kitchen.

Nestling in Blaine's arms, in his own comfortable double-bed, felt incredible; it sure did not compare to the same thing in a single dorm bed. After Kurt insisted a lot – "you are _not _putting hair gel all over my pillows" – Blaine took a shower before meeting him in his bed so his hair was in its natural curly state. Kurt could not keep his hands out of it, sometimes combing his fingers through his thick curls and sometimes massaging Blaine's scalp.

"You have no idea how much I love your hair," Kurt whispered, hiding his face in it. Smelling his own shampoo on his boyfriend was a feeling Kurt could easily get used to.

"Well, I don't," Blaine said.

"It's because you have a very unfortunate haircut," Kurt said, his fingers stroking Blaine's fringe.

"Okay, enough talking about me," Blaine said, taking Kurt's hands away from his head and pinning them to the mattress by his head. "Enough talking."

Kurt could not agree more. They began making out, Blaine's weight pressing Kurt into the mattress. They quickly went farther than ever before, like taking their shirts off or letting their hands wander lower than their shoulders and faces. It was probably what not fearing that a R.A. could walk in at any moment did to them.

Little did they know was that as Blaine put his hand down the front of Kurt's underpants while kissing and nibbling his neck, Finn happened to be walking past Kurt's room. He wanted to get the game he had forgotten in the basement last time he and Kurt had had a competition to play it in his room. Finn was not sure he would ever unhear the sounds that escaped Kurt's mouth and could clearly be heard on the other side of the door. He sure as hell would never be able to erase the images they created in his mind.

Kurt was having too much fun. There was nothing he loved more than dragging poor unfortunate souls through the mall to relook them. It was his drug and Blaine's case was a really good fix. He had an unexplainable love for argyle patterns and colours that should have been destroyed in the seventies, as well as something almost like a fetish for t-shirts with ridiculous things written on them. The Hogwarts one was a good enough example. He was also quite proud that he had convinced Blaine to leave the house without using half a bottle of gel on his hair. Kurt had helped him style it differently and Blaine said he almost liked the result. It was a big enough victory for Kurt.

The mall was relatively quiet now that the Christmas rush was behind them. It meant that Kurt could take all the time he wanted in the diverse boutiques without having to worry about bothering people.

Blaine was the perfect victim, never complaining about having to try on the same pants in five different shades of blue or having the salespeople give their opinion on how he looked. He obediently paraded out of the cabins and took silly poses in front of the mirror. He listened to Kurt as he ranted about some aspects of fashion and he carried the bags himself. Even Carole had not been so cooperative.

"I take back everything I ever said about shopping," Blaine said, his head on Kurt's shoulder. They had stopped to buy a coffee and were sitting on a bench near the fountain at the middle of the mall. "It's so exhausting."

"But you like your new clothes, right?"

"Yeah. I just don't know when I will get to wear most of them." Kurt knew he was talking about the yellow vest.

Okay, so maybe Kurt had lost it when Blaine showed him the credit card his father had left him to shop. There were ten bags lying around them. He had never been so grateful to date someone whose parents were rich.

Kurt suddenly tensed, causing Blaine to straighten up and ask him what was wrong.

"Karofsky," Kurt said under his breath. "He's over there, with his stupid friends." Kurt jerked his head in the direction and Blaine scanned the crowd, tensing too when he finally saw them. "And he's seen me. He's coming this way. Shit."

Kurt thought quickly, trying to see how he could get out of this one. They had too many bags to gather to leave in a hurry and there was no way they could do anything if the Neanderthals decided they wanted to use them as punching bags. That's when he had an idea. It was a terrible one but he was counting on the effect of surprise to save his life.

Kurt leaned in and kissed Blaine. The other boy muttered 'oh, okay, hello' against Kurt's lips before kissing him back. Kurt put his hand on Blaine's thigh to move in closer, Blaine's hand on the back of his neck.

Once they broke apart, Kurt saw that the four guys had stopped moving and were standing right in front of them, staring.

"What's wrong, Dave?" Kurt asked cockily, not knowing where his confidence came from. Possibly from Blaine's hand on the small of his back. "Are you jealous?"

Blaine kissed his cheek and winked at the football player. Kurt could feel him shaking against his side. It was great to know he was as terrified as Kurt was.

"I'm not a fucking fag, not like you, ladies," he snapped and his friends laughed, taking a step closer.

"Ladies? But last time I checked, Kurt was a man," Blaine said candidly while Kurt winked at Karofsky with exaggeration.

The four of them looked like they were about to jump them but a security guard came out of nowhere and asked if everything was alright. Seconds later, Kurt and Blaine were alone again, not understanding how they were still alive.

Hours later, they were retelling the story in great details as they were having dinner at BreadstiX with the glee kids.

"Wait, Karofsky is gay?" Finn asked, which caused everyone to roll their eyes.

"Yeah but he's so far in the closet he's in Narnia," Blaine answered patiently. In the day he had spent living with Finn, he had quickly learned that sometimes the teenager could be bordering on thick.

Sam was the only one who laughed at that joke, confirming once more how big of a geek he was.

Kurt watched his friends and boyfriend in silence as they continued to joke through the meal. It was almost surreal how much his life had turned around in the span of two months. He was holding Blaine's hand while joking with Puck and if anyone had told him a year ago that he would get a boyfriend and befriend Noah Puckerman, he would have laughed out loud. It almost scared him how fast life could change.

There was one thing that would never change; Kurt really was a lousy spy.


End file.
